10 Must Brutal Acts Of Revenge In History

9. Queen Boudica Ravaged Most Of Roman Britain In Revenge For Having Her Kingdom Usurped

Queen Boudica of the British Iceni Celtic tribe in 1st-Century AD Wales was shafted by the Romans - who ignored her husband King Prasutagus' will when he died, and instead annexed her territories. Both Boudica and her daughters were tortured, lashed and then raped by Roman soldiers - as financiers from the empire also called in all of her loans.

Angered by her treatment by the colonialists, Boudica led a revolt in AD 60 (or 61, no-one is quite sure) - rampaging through a large portion of Britain and ransacking town after town in revenge.

First of all Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester), a town inhabited by discharged Roman soldiers and containing a temple to former Emperor Claudius, was completely destroyed by Boudica and her Iceni forces.

Boudica then turned her attention to Londinium (present-day London) - and led 100,000 warriors from various tribes (including the Iceni and Trinovantes) in burning down the city, as well as the town of Verulamium (now St Albans). It is believed up to 80,000 Romans and British were killed by Boudica's army.

With Emperor Nero seriously contemplating withdrawing all Roman forces from Britannia as a result of this, his governor Gaius Seutonius Paulinus finally managed to defeat Boudica and her followers at the Battle of Watling Street - with the Celtic Queen supposedly committing suicide in order to avoid capture.

You know what they say: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"...